Attorney Ryan Pacyga said at a news conference Wednesday that the 23-year-old senior center never had sexual contact with either woman.

The university's equal opportunity office recommended Lynch's expulsion Jan. 3 after finding him responsible for sexual misconduct in an alleged assault off campus April 7, 2016.

The office issued that finding the same day as a separate recommendation that he be suspended and barred from campus until 2020 in an unrelated incident alleged to have happened three weeks later in his dorm room.

Lynch was suspended from games last week but allowed to continue practicing while he appeals. He was not at the news conference.